So, it being the first day of the month and all, I went to the bank to get some cash on the way home from work.

The ATM was down. Well, it was working, but it had a big “not able to dispense cash” warning message on the main menu.

So I went inside. There were three windows open, nobody waiting in line, and the cashier at the nearest window waved me over to her and said, perkily, “What can I do for you today?”

And, without thinking too hard about it, I answered “well, the ATM was out of money, so I figured I’d come in and” (vaguely waving at the row of windows) “see the Ts”.

And there was a moment where time more or less stopped, and I realized a few things:

1. I had just vaguely gestured at all three women at chest height.
2. The one directly in front of me was a good 15 to 20 years younger than me and more than likely had only ever heard “ATM” as a word and not an acronym.
3. She was wearing a rather low-cut blouse.  Not, you know, a V-neck, but a scoop neck with a generous scoop.
4. The perky smile had vanished like a hard-shaken Etch-a-Sketch.

And the moment lingered, and I think she correctly interpreted the look of panic on my face, and she laughed and said “you know, I don’t think many people know that T stands for Teller”, and the world started moving at regular speed again and she cheerfully took my account information and gave me some money and said that she’d have someone look at the ATM and wished me a pleasant evening.

Definitely need to work on that phrasing, tho.